Islam

Even Muslim teen girls who don’t wear religious clothing have to deal with Islamophobia. One teen used to spend hours arguing with people until “I gradually realized that people are going to be ignorant no matter what.”

The prime minister has ignited the #TraditionallySubmissive protest hashtag by Muslim women. Another vein of criticism calls out Cameron for joining Donald Trump in stoking Islamophobia with fears of terrorism.

Varied interpretations of the Quran are widely linked to Islamophobia and global terrorism. Less is said about the strain it can also cause within families. These girls strive to be good daughters and good Muslims. But what about being good friends to male classmates too?

“It is catastrophic,” says one Muslim women’s leader, referring to the Nov. 13 attacks. “If we do not act on the causes of why they committed such horrors, we are not going to find the tools to stop them and to offer other alternatives.”

In multiculturalist Canada, which faces federal elections next month, Muslim women and the ban on wearing a face veil during citizenship ceremonies are in the vortex of political controversy. The courts declared the niqab ban unlawful; those for the ban are fighting on.

As a teen in Afghanistan, Zahra has seen what her fate could be if she and her peers don’t defy men and their own culture. Here, she shares the stories of three women and girls who felt they had no alternative but to stay silent.

Facing a culture of bribery and constant threats on herself and her family, Jamila Afghani looks back on more than five years of helping religious leaders in Afghanistan preach to women in a gender-respectful way. And she worries about her country becoming a “second Iraq.”

Amani al-Khatahtbeh, a veiled, Muslim, feminist, started her own online publication when she was in high school in New Jersey. “The most important thing for the movement,” she says, “is to take a step back and empower women to speak for themselves.”

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It is being hailed as the most progressive state policy so far, going further than New Jersey, California and Rhode Island in various respects. But its showcase potential won’t be tested until the program gets going in 2018.